In the medieval period, Parliament acquired the right of consent to taxation. In the seventeenth century, the early Stuart monarchs, James I and Charles I, pressed for money, resorted to a number of financial expedients which involved the collection of revenue without parliamentary consent, actions which many members of Parliament considered as threats to the English constitution and to the existence of Parliament. I will consider how members of Parliament cited medieval precedent to show that the collection of revenue without consent violated the constitution. I will study how this issue was dealt with by Parliament from 1604 until its resolution in the 1689 settlement.